new hobby.

Last weekend, while Matt was busy seeing the White House

and getting the backstage tour of the Capitol,

snapping sweet shots of the monument,

and eating Ethiopian

with these two pals,

I was playing in the dirt

with this little helper.

I decided that I'd like to try my hand at growing some foodstuffs. I don't have a green thumb or much knowledge of what in the world to do, but I'm going for it. I'm become familiar with the gardening shelves of our library, if not the pages of the books I bring home. They have pretty pictures. :) I also started a half-hearted attempt at a compost pile . . . maybe next year it'll be ready to go. While I know nothing about anything, I am pretty sure that the many wild animals roaming our woods would be detrimental to my garden. So, when my parents were out here, my handyman dad built me a garden!

Here it is in its tightly sealed state. No animals allowed!

And this is me working away.

Since lettuce can tolerate a little cold weather, I planted it a few weeks ago. Voila! My little lettuce seedlings! I didn't know . . . I just planted the whole packet . . . they're going to need some thinning out pretty soon.

I started big tomatoes

and cherry tomatoes

inside. I started peppers too but no sign of them yet. Maybe I forgot to actually plant the seeds? I don't know.

If you're a pro gardener and have advice or tips or you-must-do-this's, please share.